The specification relates to modifying a Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) radio for Millimeter Wave (mmWave) communications based on beam alignment feedback data.
Radio waves in an Extremely High Frequency (“EHF”) band (e.g., about 28 to 300 gigahertz (“GHz”)) have wavelengths from ten to one millimeter and are consequently referred to as millimeter waves (“mmWave” or “mmWaves”). A challenge in mmWave communication includes beam alignment. The mmWave communication between two endpoints is not possible without first completing a beam alignment process between these two endpoints. For example, beamforming with narrow beams is needed to compensate high propagation loss at the mmWave band and appropriate beam pointing at both a receiver and a transmitter is needed. It is currently difficult or impossible to implement mmWave communication in vehicles because existing technologies cannot complete a beam alignment process in a timely fashion that is sufficiently quick for vehicular applications. For example, vehicles travel quickly on roadways, and if an endpoint for a mmWave communication is a vehicle (or worse yet, both endpoints for an mmWave communication are vehicles), then it is needed to execute a beam alignment process in a short amount of time.
An existing solution for beam alignment is known as “beam training by beam sweeping.” This solution is not adequate for vehicle applications because it is designed for low mobility environments and does not work for high mobility environments such as present in vehicle applications.